Layton's meeting with Harper: Sound and fury, signifying little

Just a quick post to say that they packaged one of my Hill Queeries blog posts as the headline article on the national page of Xtra.ca today - which I thought was pretty cool. And it was nice to go to a press conference in the National Press Theatre again - I do believe I've missed it.

Weighing in on nominations helps to shape federal party policy

Today I have a piece on the Capital Xtra website, which I'm pretty passionate about. (That it was supposed to have gone up on last Monday is another matter). A few years ago, during the last Ottawa Centre Liberal nomination race, my then-flatmate volunteered on a campaign, and I got to witness what this kind of grassroots democracy in action looks like. It inspired me to think more about this institution we call Parliamentary Democracy, and just what it is that most Canadians don't see - the ground-level participation that gets them involved in politics, and counters the disconnect and apathy that currently plagues politics in this country. When these nominations came around again, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to try and get more people to see these nominations as the way to get involved.

I've interviewed both of the Liberal candidates, and those interviews should go up any time. (They were supposed to have been up before Wednesday to give people the chance to purchase memberships before the Monday cut-off, but these things are apparently out of my hands). As the nomination races continue, I'm looking forward to covering them more.

Canada's record of criminalization creep

I have a piece in the new issue of Capital Xtra which is the first of a two-part series which examines the "criminalisation creep" of HIV in Canada. The Xtra chain has been engaging in an advocacy campaign about HIV criminalisation for a while, but until now, there has been no long-form examination of the history of the creep - which is what part one focuses on - nor has there been a solid examination of the solutions or alternatives, which is what part two will focus on when it comes out in three weeks' time.

That said, this was an article that kicked my ass. It was long and gruelling, and trying to find a criminal law professor who could speak to the issues at this time of year was almost impossible. However, after a long trail of phone calls and emails that went from one professor to the next, I eventually found someone at Osgoode Hall who, while he couldn't help me, forwarded me a law journal article on the very subject I was looking at, as well as the contact information for its author. That is what put this piece over the top from a good piece to a great one (in my humble opinion). It was originally going to be one huge piece, but my editor decided to break it up into two parts, which allows me time to add a few more pieces to the second half that there simply wasn't room for before. I'm incredibly happy with the work in this piece, and I look forward to the release of the second part.

NDP passes queer health resolution at convention

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, and it's one that I'm a bit frustrated with the end result. It was initially a longer piece which also made mention of the fact that the NDP's GLBT Committee adopted some new formal rules at the convention to give themselves more structure. Only as soon as it was posted, the one source immediately got in touch to say that I must have misunderstood, that they weren't a new organisation but it was just more structured. Which is what I said. And so I passed him onto my editor, who ended up excising the whole bit. So...that's the way it goes, apparently.

NDP prepares for Halifax convention

I have a new piece on the national page of Xtra.ca about the NDP convention taking place this weekend. It was nice having a chance to catch up with Bill Siksay again (and there's a bit more of that catching up on Hill Queeries here), as I'm in the process of doing with my other usual MPs.

There will indeed be a follow-up piece early next week to discuss what happened during the convention, so watch for that.

UK-style changes to Canada's refugee system could hurt queer claimants

I have a new piece up on the Xtra.ca national page today, which is actually about a week-and-a-half late in being posted, but there were several delays and a long-weekend in there, so what can you do? Suffice to say, I really enjoyed writing this article as I had a chance to interact with Peter Tatchell in the UK, who is an activist I have long admired.

There is a secondary component to the article that is posted on my Hill Queeries blog, in which I asked the two critics I spoke to about the likelihood of the Conservatives using this issue during an election. I got some fairly interesting answers as well, which I hope get a bit of play.